HBO might have lost its way when it comes to making weekly series, but it still produces exceptional made-for-TV movies. Taking Chance, an elegiac chronicle of the final journey home for a 19-year-old Marine killed in Iraq, is one of the most eloquent and socially conscious films the premium cable channel has ever presented.
Kevin Bacon delivers a lights-out, searing performance as Michael Strobl, a tightly wrapped lieutenant colonel who escorts the remains of Lance Cpl. Chance Phelps from the Dover Port Mortuary in Delaware to the home of the dead Marine's parents in Dubois, Wyo. Meanwhile, producer-writer-director Ross Katz steeps the cross-country journey in such a rich brew of distilled emotion and America iconography that at times the film feels almost too intense to bear - and that is a good thing.
Taking Chance, which premieres at 8 p.m. tomorrow, gives us the opportunity to not only bear witness but also feel in our hearts the disproportionate sacrifice some American families have made to the war in Iraq. While watching the movie might seem a fairly grim way to spend a Saturday night, it isn't. Thanks to Katz's skilled direction and Bacon's inspired performance, in the end, the film leaves you feeling uplifted - even healed. And you probably don't need me to tell you that it's a rare made-for-TV movie that has that kind of catharsis and spiritual kick.
